If you push the button on the titular box in Richard Kelly’s new sci-fi opus, two things will undoubtedly happen. The first is that somewhere in the world, a person you do not know will die. The second is that after pushing the button, you will receive a briefcase filled with 1 million U.S. dollars delivered to your home by one Arlington Steward, who looks a bit like Scrooge meets the Phantom of the Opera. If you watch the film The Box, two things will very likely happen. You will be drawn in by a moody, compelling and well-acted 45-minute set-up. And then you will be completely flummoxed by a preposterous, barely cohesive and frustrating second half. The question ahead is clear. Are the initial pleasures substantial enough to warrant enduring the resulting flaws? Let’s look at the facts.
Kelly’s The Box opens in 1976 with the button device being delivered mysteriously to the doorstep of Norma(Cameron Diaz) and Arthur Lewis (James Marsden). Later that day, the box’s creator, Arlington Steward, shows up and pitches to Norma the aforementioned proposal regarding the rules of the button. Steward warns Norma of two other stipulations of the deal; he cannot reveal the identity of his employers and neither she nor her husband may tell anyone else about the arrangement, the box or Steward’s visit. He leaves the box in their care and says that he will return in 24 hours to pick it back up. They have until then to push — or not push — the button.
The Lewises are a caring and tight-knit family unit; no strangers to selflessness and sacrifice for those they love. Arthur works at NASA and his career goal is to eventually become an astronaut on the Mars Mission, while Norma is a high school English teacher. On the same day that Steward visits them, Norma is denied tuition reimbursement and Arthur learns of his rejection from the space program. Financially strapped, and faced with compromises to their future plans, one of them predictably pushes the button. They get the money, the box is taken away, and they are left with the consequences of their actions.
Up until that point, Kelly’s movie is firing on all cylinders. The costume and set designs that resurrect the kitschy nightmare of 1970s fashions and the fresh mystique of the NASA space program are without blame and create a curious texture that works for this film in the same way that the 80’s setting worked for Kelly’s Donnie Darko. Henry Mancini-esque score is a strange and archaic piece that evokes with precision The Twilight Zone qualities and pedigree of The Box, which is based on a Matheson short story that also appeared as an episode in that classic series.
The acting is surprisingly strong, especially from Diaz who really embodies Norma as a caring and compassionate woman who has made an uncharacteristically monstrous decision in a moment of weakness. She internalizes the central moral dilemma of the box in a way that the rest of the film fails to do. Marsden, so often the nice guy in the background, gets the opportunity to play that role front and center here and his mannered approach keeps everything from flying completely off the rails, at least until the film’s off-the-wall third act. As Arlington Steward, Langella is the most effective and imposing member of the cast. His presence, including his fearsome, fire-ravaged visage, is appropriately sinister and unnerving.
However, once the film moves beyond the confines of that original concept — even as a 30-minute Zone episode it was stretched to its narrative limits — I began to lose interest and investment in the characters and their ordeal. Much like Kelly’s previous features, the splendid Darko and the bafflingly awful Southland Tales, The Box introduces more ideas, characters and plot points than can be easily resolved or even satisfyingly explored within its running time.
After they push the button, the Lewises encounter strange, dead-eyed people wandering around their house and inexplicable nosebleeds in trusted friends and acquaintances.The NSA has set up shop at Arthur’s work and the movie begins creating a startlingly convoluted connection between Steward’s behavior, the philosophies of Jean Paul Sartre and the possibilities of life on the Martian surface. To add extra confusion, those strange sentient water structures from Darko show-up here, visualizing Sartre’s views on human nature and reflective consciousness. Kelly draws us back to the original set-up in a downbeat but powerful final sequence, but he never justifies or explains all the oddball science fiction that clogs up the film’s center sections.
So, is The Box successful as an entertainment? It certainly is bold and it strives for originality and thoughtfulness. As a suspense picture, it works well enough in the early going. However, it would be dishonest of me to suggest that it pulls all of its pieces together in a way that drives home its moral suppositions. They just aren’t supported by the plot or its delivery. Strangely, this will matter more to some than others. I fully expect to hear a negative reaction from the majority of filmgoers, but there may be those who embrace The Box because it is ambitious and they will latch on to all that the film gets right.
When I was asked last night after the screening, I responded that the film didn’t quite work for me. After spending some time chewing it over, and discussing the central question at its heart with others, I realize that in some small ways the film does its job and maybe it just got under my skin. It is possible then that, flaws and all, it may also get under yours.
